Thousands of people protested President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration and refugees at the White House Sunday.
Photo:
Miguel Juarez Lugo/Zuma Press

Aaron David Miller is a vice president at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars and most recently the author of “The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President.” He is on Twitter: @AaronDMiller2.

The executive order restricting immigration that President Donald Trump signed Friday is unlikely to accomplish the goal its title suggests of protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the U.S., principally because the more serious threat the U.S. faces is from potential homegrown terrorists.

Indeed, unless rescinded or at least substantially revised, the order may serve to undermine U.S. counterterrorism policy; alienate American allies abroad and Muslim Americans at home; and, in the process, damage the nation’s interests and its values, too.

One American killed in a terror attack is one too many, and reviewing vetting procedures with the objective of strengthening them makes sense. The deadliest terror groups in the world today are all Muslim. In the age of jihadi terror, especially with the rise of Islamic State and al Qaeda’s return, the U.S. must be vigilant.

But does the order address the real threat, and at what cost? Since 9/11, there hasn’t been a single terror fatality in the U.S. caused by anyone who emigrated from, or whose parents emigrated from, any of the seven countries covered by the temporary ban. And the order strangely leaves out Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and United Arab Emirates, countries from which the 9/11 hijackers hailed and that have long histories of jihadi activity. It also leaves out Pakistan and Afghanistan, longtime centers of jihadi ideology and havens for those planning terror attacks against the West.

Was it necessary to suspend temporarily all refugees’ admissions, impose a ban from these seven Muslim countries (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen) and suspend indefinitely the Syrian refugee program all without appropriate preparation and conditioning of the bureaucracy, U.S. allies and the public?

The new administration’s blanket assumption appeared to be that the U.S. had fundamentally flawed or nonexistent vetting procedures. That assumption is contradicted by the fact that there hasn’t been a single successful terror attack in the U.S. directed or organized by a foreign terror organization since 2001. Indeed, since the 1980 Refugee Act set up systematic vetting procedures, no individual admitted into the U.S. with refugee status has been implicated in a major, fatal terror attack.

The executive order seems to miss a key point: the primary threat to the U.S. doesn’t seem to come from new refugees or visitors recently admitted into the country. Instead, the most serious challenge comes from homegrown jihadis who were born in this country or who were brought here at an early age. Of the 330 people in the U.S. charged with planning or supporting terror activities since 9/11, four out of five were American citizens or legal permanent residents, according to New America terrorism expert Peter Bergen. These include Boston marathon bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan, and Orlando nightclub attacker Omar Mateen.

These individuals had been in the country for years. Radicalization was a complex process that evolved over time. If this is indeed the pattern, it’s difficult to imagine how any vetting–extreme or otherwise–can divine who is likely to be radicalized and who isn’t, especially among young children, teenagers and certainly those yet to be born.

Perhaps far more serious is the very real danger that the restrictions will unsettle, alienate and anger America’s three million Muslims whose cooperation and partnership law enforcement needs to deal with the challenge of radicalization at home.

No matter how the Trump administration explains its intentions, the executive order is being perceived as a discriminatory action driven by anti-Muslim animus in the administration. After all, Mr. Trump’s initial instinct during the campaign was to ban all Muslims from entering the country and to conflate jihadi terrorists with all Muslims. The reference in the order to the need for immigrants to accept America’s founding principles will strike many as portending some future loyalty test–not just the oath that all new citizens take to uphold the Constitution–and also raise fears of a Muslim registry. ISIS-related social-media sites are already hailing the travel ban as a victory and proclaiming that the restrictions show the U.S. is at war with Islam.

I would be surprised if the Trumpkins offer any substantive response to this article. The facts are there and they won't be able to change them. To address the problem of domestic terrorism would take much more to address than could be achieved with a simple executive order.

ILLEGAL ALEINS COST US TAXPAYERS OVER $100 BILLION A YEAR - Rice University

Every US inner city is a cesspool of crime and poverty, we don't need illiterate, unskilled, uneducated poor. America does need MDs, nurses engineers who can contribute on day #1, pay taxes and not need welfare.

Democrats want to dilute America by flooding it with millions of illegal aliens and refugees showering them with FREE welfare, FREE healthcare, FREE housing, FREE food stamps, FREE schools and colleges and the list just goes on! Yes, using hard earned taxpayer money to buy their future votes.

@Jane Scholz: Try to stay focused on the message and not get lost in a word's misspelling. So easily distracted!!!!

It is well documented that illegal aliens are costing taxpayers over $100 billion a year.

Imagine if that money were spent on revitalizing our inner cities, creating an college loan endowment fund to help students finance college?

Obama sold his healthcare plan on a bed of lies. Every democrat that voted for this colossal lie should be thrown to the curb. The people that voted for these dopes should take a long hard look in the mirror and say, "Was I real dope or what/"

Rex Tillerson's speech this morning was ain sharp contrast to the last two dopes who had zero experience, and even less talent. The Obama, Hillary Kerry circus act.

I met a man who went bankrupt four times. He stayed true to his goals and objectives and worked on average 80-90 hours a week. You may have heard of his stores Wal Mart and his name was Sam Walton. By the way his company is the largest private employer in the world!

The curse of liberal democrats is the truth and facts and the desire to spend everyone else's money.

President Trump affirmed today that his selection of Rex Tillerson was brilliant. Supremely more qualified than those two losers Hillary and Kerry who worked for the circus clown Obama.

@James Fallon@Jane Scholz Actually, the Muslim ban debate is not about illegal immigrants, but about people who have already gone through the US vetting process to some degree, either to become officially designated as refugees or to get a visa or a green card. For that reason, the numbers on illegal aliens are not really relevant to the current debate.

Rich Swier's info seems to apply only to illegal immigrants, which is a number that is difficult to quantify. He may be an expert on this issue or he may not, the only info I could find on him came from web sites that he maintains about himself. A respectable researcher would not rely on this information.

@James Fallon@Jane Scholz If you want to fully fund Social Security, all you need to do is raise the SS tax cap which now stands at $118K per year per person. In fact, there would be enough extra money generated from that to largely solve the Medicare issue too.

If you want to fix Obamacare, switch to single-payer and/or require everyone to have insurance, no opt-out option. Has nothing to do with immigrants or refugees.

Neither of these issues have anything to do with the Muslim ban.

As for Sam Walton, when he started Wal-Mart, his idea was to buy from American manufacturers. However, that idea fell by the wayside long ago. Now the company buys most of its merchandise from foreign manufacturers and its stores have put a lot of local merchants out of business. He may be your hero, but he's not mine.

@Jane Scholz: First tell me why I get 50% 0f what I paid into social security and others get 200%, This is another tax cam to pay for more losers.

The answer from democrats is always more taxes so they can spend. How about a tax decrease, how about defunding services for illegal aliens and refugees???

Yes, you are correct that Wal Mart today buys most of its products from China. And the reason for that is partly due to the corporate tax policies of America. Rest assured President Trump recognizes that and the $2.2 trillion in overseas corporate profits that need to be repatriated.

The business of America is business and under President Trump he is staffing up the best professionals in America. The corrupt politicians like Hillary, Pelosi, Feinstein, Warren put their interest first not the American people.

Your past circus performers you voted for Hillary, Obama did work out I wonder why????

Senator Schumer, Muslims, Jews and Christians are dying in the Middle East; you are personally responsible.

Your silence while Obama and the vast majority of the Democrats in the House and Senate passed the Iranian Nuclear 'Accord' allowed billions of dollars to be sent to the No 1 sponsor of terrorism on the planet. These dollars are being used to undermine the United States, Israel and the West, and to slaughter innocents all across the region.

For you to stand before any camera, with the blood that you have on your hands, is astounding.

How dare you protest a stricter immigration policy from the very countries where these dollars are being used by Iran to bankroll terrorists?

I feel sorry for writers like this one: they keep taking Trump's bait.

If this were really about public safety, there are a thousand other priorities more important than any kind of terrorism. But it's just an excuse to confirm people's xenophobia, so obviously domestic terrorism isn't a concern to these people.

Imagine if we spent $100 billion a year rebuilding our inner cities that are a cesspool of crime and poverty. Now focusing on US Citizens and their lives is priority #1, not someone who lives 10,000 miles away. If you believe something needs to be done, get on a plane and do it!